Yes, these keypads have been in use for at least 10 years. You press a button to activate the keypad, and it randomly places the digits onto the pad so they're in a different place each time. After you successfully enter your code all of the numbers disappear. It certainly makes it slower to enter your PIN, but it also makes it impossible to surreptitiously determine your PIN.

Given some of Google's recent comments on patents, what is the likelihood that they picked one of the most obviously documented prior art patent ideas they could come up with just to make a point?Just trying to make the point that, "If this gets patented, then clearly ANYTHING can. And that proves that the system is broken."

Posted
by
timothy
on Thursday June 04, 2009 @04:27PM
from the soon-it'll-be-saline-&-stem-cell-solution dept.

Sean0michael writes "Australian scientists have restored the sight of three human test subjects using stem cells cultured in contact lenses. All the patients were blind in only one eye. Two were legally blind, but can now read the big letters on an eye chart. The third could read the first few lines, but is now able to pass a driver's test. The University of New South Wales reports that these patients all had damaged corneas, and the stem cells came from each person's good eye. The best part: the procedure is inexpensive, raising hopes for being able to push this to the third world sooner than other, more expensive medications."